One Forgotten Direction Of Business Analysis: The Case Of Estonia

In the 1960s and 1970s, Estonian Academician Uno Mereste developed a methodology for performance analysis, which could be called Integrated System of Performance Analysis (ISoPA). Several papers on ISoPA were published in the 1980s. Unfortunately, they were all written in Estonian or Russian. For that reason, the methodology of ISoPA is virtually unknown outside of Estonia. ISoPA allows an analyst to evaluate the business results of an individual entity or corporate group from many different perspectives, comparing them with set goals, historical data or data of other entities or groups. Based on a combination of a system approach with matrix modeling and index number theory, ISoPA became an alternative approach to analyze and evaluate entities’ business activities, yet for various reasons the methodology is almost by present-day business managers and financial analysts. The aim of the paper is to introduce the use of ISoPA methodology and to discuss the selection and ranking of initial indicators for assessing the performance of a business entity. The authors of the current paper believe that the use of the ISoPA methodology to examine the interrelationships between business performance indicators provides a promising opportunity to improve the level of business analysis.